Get Started With Swift

Apple developers quickly learned to rely on Xcode when it was released in 2014. I’ve already provided information on getting started with Xcode, its installation, general features, and capabilities.

So, now that you’ve installed Xcode on your Mac, what do you do with it? The answer is Swift.

This article introduces the Swift programming language, including its characteristics, advantages (and disadvantages), and challenges. I also compare it with Python, another common programming language many Apple developers use.

Swift is mainly used to develop apps for the Apple ecosystem of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS. It integrates effectively with Apple’s Xcode IDE, the Apple App Store, and Apple developer resources.

Swift Features and Characteristics

Swift is a general-purpose compiled language that supports object-oriented programming. It integrates modern concepts from other languages to work well for creating mobile, desktop, and cloud apps. While Swift generally focuses on coding for Apple platforms, it does support Linux and Windows.

Swift development on a Mac exhibits several characteristics, including:

• Safety: Swift catches mistakes before production. It also offers automatic memory management, array bounds checking, and integer overflow protection.
• Speed: Swift’s speed is comparable to that of C-based languages.
• Readability: Swift uses a concise and expressive syntax that makes it easier to work with than many other programming languages.
• Open-source: Swift is under the Apache 2.0 license, enabling a developer community to emerge and the release of third-party tools.
• Statically typed language: It checks variable types at compile time rather than runtime to catch errors more quickly and enable code optimization. However, this can also lead to more verbose code (but it’s safer).

In addition, Swift relies on the Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) compiler infrastructure to compile code. LLVM provides a framework that supports code optimization and platform targeting. Apple uses its own fork of the LLVM framework to retain agility and alignment with Swift.

Swift also has a command-line component for creating basic applications.

These characteristics describe Swift and its development environment, so be sure to investigate them and compare them with other languages you might already be familiar with.

Reasons to Use (or Not to Use) Swift

Many of today’s languages claim to be relatively easy to learn, and Swift is no different. However, it does have an intuitive structure, so it’s a good place for newer developers to start. It’s also robust enough for the experts who want to create powerful apps for Apple Watches, iPhones, iPads, or Mac computers.

However, a couple of interesting advantages come to mind when considering Swift.

Swift Playgrounds are Mac and iPad apps that help you learn Swift and test applications, including lessons and immediate code interaction.

Lessons are activity-based to provide practical experience rather than theoretical descriptions. Some topics they cover include:

• Commands
• Functions
• Types
• Variables
• Loops
• Conditionals
• Operators

You can also create playgrounds from within Xcode when you start a new project. These are essential tools for manipulating your code and experimenting with options.

Apple maintains strong integration between Swift and Objective-C. This association is particularly helpful to those supporting and updating legacy Objective-C projects or developers who are converting an Objective-C application to Swift.

Swift continues to evolve, with Apple releasing new functionality regularly. Major versions average about five years apart, but incremental changes come several times a year. The current version is 6.0. Swift development will focus on three topics for 2025:

• Simplifying Swift Concurrency for dealing with asynchronous code.
• Providing low-level language and library tools.
• Improving interoperability with languages like C++ and Java.

Like any code language update, changes to the structure and new feature enhancements mean reviewing existing applications for functionality and performance.

Additional Swift Considerations

Swift has plenty of great things going for it. It’s a relatively straightforward language, open-source, robust, and integrates effectively into the Apple platform ecosystem. However, like any tool, it has some disadvantages to consider.

Here are a few possible concerns:

• Frequent updates to Swift may require code remediation for compatibility or functionality.
• Cross-platform limitations exist due to its focus on Apple products.
• Fewer libraries or tools are available than older or more comprehensive cross-platform languages.

Another concern is community size. This could be a good news/bad news kind of thing. The community of experts is smaller, meaning you might have fewer peers to interact with for debugging or development ideas. On the other hand, you’ll also have fewer competitors for lucrative employment opportunities.

Additional Resources

Like other languages, Swift is surrounded by a robust community of developers and add-on components. The community begins with Apple itself, and the extensive Apple Developer infrastructure. Resources include training, documentation, news, forums, and more. The site should be your first stop as a new Apple developer.

From there, look to GitHub for additional plugins and other tools to help generate, debug, and distribute Swift projects. For example, investigate these two repositories:

• BarredEwe
• SwifterSwift

Plenty of additional repositories exist on GitHub, too. Swift’s open source status makes it accessible to anyone who wants to improve the language and its surrounding toolsets. Be sure to check Swift version compatibility and carefully review code and documentation before integrating these into your dev process.

Swift versus Python

Maybe you’re a new developer but yet not convinced Swift is for you. You’ve probably already heard about Python, so you’re curious how the two compare.

The two languages differ in a few fundamental ways that impact their performance and support. They also share some similarities.

One crucial attribute they both share is a shallower learning curve than that of many other languages. They each emphasize code readability, simple syntaxes, and straightforward practices. While their implementations of these attributes differ significantly, either one should be relatively simple for a new developer to pick up.

Syntax:

• Swift: Braces-based code block structure.
• Python: Indentation-based code block structure.

Typing:

• Swift: Statically typed (variables checked at compile).
• Python: Dynamically typed (variables checked at runtime).

Performance:

• Swift: Typically faster than Python (Apple claims as much as 8x faster).
• Python: Typically significantly slower than Swift.

Resources:

• Swift: Limited community of users, tools, libraries, and other resources, with a heavy focus on Apple development.
• Python: Extremely broad array of users, third-party tools, libraries, IDEs, and more.

Use cases:

• Swift: Primarily used for macOS, iOS, and other Apple platforms.
• Python: Broad set of uses in general purpose applications, data science/machine learning, backend development, web development, and other areas.

Python’s appeal is very broad. It’s used for basic applications, backend development, AI, science, and more. Furthermore, Apple platforms are good candidates for Python development. As such, many jobs are available across a wide swath of industries and areas of expertise. Because Swift focuses on the Apple environment, its available job roles are far more limited. However, the Apple ecosystem still represents a substantial marketplace.

What About Non-Apple Platforms?

You can install and code Swift on non-Apple platforms, too. For example, a Raspberry Pi using Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS supports Swift installation using a standard package manager. It’s quicker than Python, which is the other common language found on Raspberry Pi devices. And with tools like Visual Studio Code available for the ARM architecture, one of the most popular IDEs is an option. Begin by installing the Swift extension for VS Code.

Consider using Swift for any programming task you might normally accomplish using Python on your Raspberry Pi. It supports smart home capabilities, IoT roles, robotics, and more. Swift can also work with the GPIO controls found on Raspberry Pi boards.

Wrap Up

If you install Apple Xcode, it’s sort of assumed you intend to work extensively with Swift. While Xcode offers support for other languages, it is as Apple-centric as Swift development. And you’ll typically know that you’re getting involved with macOS, iOS, and other Apple platform projects.

Swift’s speed, power, and safety make it an attractive path for new and experienced developers. It has logical characteristics, helpful features, and a reasonable support infrastructure that continues to expand. Apple recognizes that the growth of its hardware platforms (Mac computers, iPhone, iPads, etc.) all depend on a robust developer community, so it continues to evolve Swift and its related tools.

Swift offers many advantages over languages like Python for specific projects. However, it’s really a matter of choosing the right tool for the job. And if your job resides within the Apple ecosystem, that tool is Swift.